The Frenchman has grown from IndyCar rookie of the year to a legitimate championship threat that can contend just about anywhere on the schedule.

Now, we can add “TV star” to his list of accomplishments. OK, that may be a bit of a stretch. But IndyCar faithful should get a kick out of Acura’s latest ad for its 2015 TLX (see above), in which Pagenaud becomes what I’m assuming to be a lead-footed spy with a secret mission: Put the new car through its paces in a downtown metropolis.

You can catch him and the rest of the IndyCar drivers and teams open their 2014 season on March 30th from St. Petersburg, Florida. NBCSN will then restart its coverage of the series at the next race, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, on April 13th.

UPDATE, 11:30 a.m., Wednesday: TDZ taking over from Chris here. As part of my chat with Pagenaud earlier this week, we discussed the video in detail and what it meant for him to be part of the acting process.

“I’ve been involved with Acura almost my whole career, so we’ve always tried to keep a close link,” Pagenaud said. “My image, the message I try to send across, they seem to like it. So they thought it cool to use it for advertising in the new car, in more of an actor kind of role. So I did it … and it was certainly completely different than what I’m used to.”

Pagenaud went through direction and, as a rare HPD/Acura driver actually involved in an ad for the production car, was placed in a unique situation. Acting, to Pagenaud, is nowhere near as easy as it can come across.

“We did a quick briefing on what we were trying to do led by the director of the filming,” Pagenaud explained. “They explained to me what was expected from the set, and tried to reproduce it on camera. It was exciting, and now I have a whole different respect for acting! It takes a lot of focus for hours.”

Pagenaud did compare the film staff to the nucleus of the race team – a debrief on how to assess the performance was part of the process.

“That was an interesting one … Acura did it for this commercial, and was so impressed,” he said. There were about 50 people in the filming crew, all specializing on the task. They’re all very professional; it’s a lot like how we go about racing.”